Minutes, 22–23 January 1833

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

A meeting where ecclesiastical officers and other church members could conduct church business. The “Articles and Covenants” of the church directed the elders to hold conferences to perform “Church business.” The first of these conferences was held on 9 June...

An ecclesiastical and priesthood office. Christ and many ancient prophets, including Abraham, were described as being high priests. The Book of Mormon used the term high priest to denote one appointed to lead the church. However, the Book of Mormon also discussed...

Brigham
Young, who did not attend this conference,
later explained that the room where the school of the prophets met
was “a small room over Joseph Smith’s kitchen” in
Newel K. Whitney’s white store. The room was approximately eleven feet by
fourteen feet. In this room, Young declared, “the prophet received
revelations” and “instructed his brethren.” (Brigham Young, Discourse, 8 Feb.
1868, in George D. Watt, Discourse Shorthand Notes, 8 Feb. 1868,
George D. Watt, Papers, as transcribed by LaJean Purcell
Carruth, copy in editors’ possession; Brigham Young, in
Journal of Discourses, 8 Feb. 1868,
12:158.)

An organized body of leaders over priesthood quorums and other ecclesiastical organizations. A November 1831 revelation first described the office of president over the high priesthood and the church as a whole. By 1832, JS and two counselors constituted ...

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

This designation of
Rigdon
as “cheif scribe and high counceler” and
Williams
as “assistant scribe and counceler” may have reflected a hierarchy
in their counselorship and scribal positions. When
JS
called Rigdon and Jesse Gause (whom Williams
replaced) as counselors, he referred to them only as “my
councillers” without any hierarchical designation. JS may have
instituted a graduated structure after calling Williams to replace
Gause as counselor. Williams apparently accepted this designation,
because he referred to himself as “assistent scribe and counceller”
in revelations he copied into Revelation
Book 2 around this same time.
(Note, 8
Mar.
1832;
Revelation, 6 Dec.
1832
[D&C 86];
Revelation, 27–28 Dec.
1832
[D&C 88:1–126].)

An ecclesiastical and priesthood office. JS appointed Edward Partridge as the first bishop in February 1831. Following this appointment, Partridge functioned as the local leader of the church in Missouri. Later revelations described a bishop’s duties as receiving...

A governing body comprising a bishop and his counselors. The bishop’s council was charged with overseeing the temporal affairs of the church, administering goods under the law of consecration, and assisting the poor. The bishop’s council had authority to ...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

A meeting where ecclesiastical officers and other church members could conduct church business. The “Articles and Covenants” of the church directed the elders to hold conferences to perform “Church business.” The first of these conferences was held on 9 June...

An ecclesiastical and priesthood office. Christ and many ancient prophets, including Abraham, were described as being high priests. The Book of Mormon used the term high priest to denote one appointed to lead the church. However, the Book of Mormon also discussed...

Brigham
Young, who did not attend this conference,
later explained that the room where the school of the prophets met
was “a small room over Joseph Smith’s kitchen” in
Newel K. Whitney’s white store. The room was approximately eleven feet by
fourteen feet. In this room, Young declared, “the prophet received
revelations” and “instructed his brethren.” (Brigham Young, Discourse, 8 Feb.
1868, in George D. Watt, Discourse Shorthand Notes, 8 Feb. 1868,
George D. Watt, Papers, as transcribed by LaJean Purcell
Carruth, copy in editors’ possession; Brigham Young, in
Journal of Discourses, 8 Feb. 1868,
12:158.)

An organized body of leaders over priesthood quorums and other ecclesiastical organizations. A November 1831 revelation first described the office of president over the high priesthood and the church as a whole. By 1832, JS and two counselors constituted ...

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

This designation of
Rigdon
as “cheif scribe and high counceler” and
Williams
as “assistant scribe and counceler” may have reflected a hierarchy
in their counselorship and scribal positions. When
JS
called Rigdon and Jesse Gause (whom Williams
replaced) as counselors, he referred to them only as “my
councillers” without any hierarchical designation. JS may have
instituted a graduated structure after calling Williams to replace
Gause as counselor. Williams apparently accepted this designation,
because he referred to himself as “assistent scribe and counceller”
in revelations he copied into Revelation
Book 2 around this same time.
(Note, 8
Mar.
1832;
Revelation, 6 Dec.
1832
[D&C 86];
Revelation, 27–28 Dec.
1832
[D&C 88:1–126].)

An ecclesiastical and priesthood office. JS appointed Edward Partridge as the first bishop in February 1831. Following this appointment, Partridge functioned as the local leader of the church in Missouri. Later revelations described a bishop’s duties as receiving...

A governing body comprising a bishop and his counselors. The bishop’s council was charged with overseeing the temporal affairs of the church, administering goods under the law of consecration, and assisting the poor. The bishop’s council had authority to ...

A meeting where ecclesiastical officers and other church members could conduct church business. The “Articles and Covenants” of the church directed the elders to hold conferences to perform “Church business.” The first of these conferences was held on 9 June...

An ecclesiastical and priesthood office. Christ and many ancient prophets, including Abraham, were described as being high priests. The Book of Mormon used the term high priest to denote one appointed to lead the church. However, the Book of Mormon also discussed...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

A term occasionally used to refer to a Protestant seminary; specifically used by JS to refer to a school to prepare elders of the church for their ministry. A December 1832 revelation directed JS and the elders of the church in Kirtland, Ohio, to establish...

A 27–28 December
1832
revelation had commanded the “first labourers” of the
church to “assembl yourselves together, and organize yourselves, and
prepare yourselves, and sanc[t]ify yourselves.” The revelation commanded these
“labourers” to “clean your hands, and your feet, before me” so that
they could be “clean, from the blood of this, wicked generation” and
then to establish a school where they could be instructed in both
secular and spiritual matters—a school that JS called a “school for the
Prophets.”2

Schools of the prophets, which trained ministerial candidates prior
to the assumption of their duties as clergymen, had been part of the
colonial and early American religious landscape since the arrival of
the Puritans in the 1630s. Institutions such as Harvard, Yale,
Princeton, and Dartmouth were generally understood to be “schools of
the prophets” in that one of their primary functions was to train a
qualified clergy. Private schools of the prophets emerged in the
1740s as part of the reform spirit associated with the First Great
Awakening and continued into the early nineteenth century.3

According to the 27–28 December
1832
revelation, the School of the Prophets was necessary for
the men of the school to “be prepared, in all things when I shall
send you again, to magnify the calling, whereunto I have called you,
and the mission with which, I have commissioned you.” It was also
essential so that the men could be better qualified “to go forth
among the gentiles

Those who were not members of the House of Israel. More specifically, members of the church identified gentiles as those whose lineage was not of the Jews or Lamanites (understood to be the American Indians in JS’s day). Certain prophecies indicated that ...

In accordance with these
instructions, twelve high priests, two elders

A male leader in the church generally; an ecclesiastical and priesthood office or one holding that office; a proselytizing missionary. The Book of Mormon explained that elders ordained priests and teachers and administered “the flesh and blood of Christ unto...

, where JS was
living. The conference continued the next day, though it is likely, given the “washing hands
faces & feet” that took place on the second day, that only the
men listed at the beginning of the minutes were present on that
day.

Although the index to
Minute Book 1 states that the purpose of the conference
was to organize the school, the minutes do not provide details about
any kind of formal establishment. Instead, the minutes indicate that
the conference was mainly concerned with the sanctification required
by the 27–28
December 1832
revelation—perhaps as a necessary precursor to any actual
teaching or learning. The participants present on the first day
experienced the gifts of speaking in and
interpreting tongues. Both the Bible and the Book of
Mormon refer to speaking in tongues as one of the
manifestations of God’s Spirit. A March
1831
revelation also states that “it is given to some to speak
with tongues & to another it is given the interpretation of
tongues.”5

The
practice, however, was not common in other religious denominations
in the United States

North American constitutional republic. Constitution ratified, 17 Sept. 1787. Population in 1805 about 6,000,000; in 1830 about 13,000,000; and in 1844 about 20,000,000. Louisiana Purchase, 1803, doubled size of U.S. Consisted of seventeen states at time ...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

church members had experienced this gift in 1830 and 1831 before
JS’s arrival, it largely disappeared
in Ohio

French explored area, 1669. British took possession following French and Indian War, 1763. Ceded to U.S., 1783. First permanent white settlement established, 1788. Northeastern portion maintained as part of Connecticut, 1786, and called Connecticut Western...

However, at a meeting
in November 1832, as a later history
of JS explains, “Brother Brigham Young

1 June 1801–29 Aug. 1877. Carpenter, painter, glazier, colonizer. Born at Whitingham, Windham Co., Vermont. Son of John Young and Abigail (Nabby) Howe. Brought up in Methodist household; later joined Methodist church. Moved to Sherburne, Chenango Co., New...

Esplin, Ronald K. “The Emergence of Brigham Young and the
Twelve to Mormon Leadership, 1830–1841.” PhD diss., Brigham Young University,
1981. Also available as The Emergence of Brigham Young and the Twelve to
Mormon Leadership, 1830–1841, Dissertations in Latter-day Saint History
(Provo, UT: Joseph Fielding Smith Institute for Latter-day Saint History; BYU
Studies, 2006).

Just two
months later, the gift resurfaced in this 22–23 January
1833 meeting. According to the later history, JS
“rejoiced . . . at the return of these long absent blessings to the
assembly of the Saints.”9

On the second day of the conference, after another episode of speaking in
tongues,
JS
washed the hands, faces, and feet of those present, following the
biblical precedent found in John 13:4–17. Such a ceremony was not
unknown at the time. The practice came to colonial America with
radical Reformation groups, such as Mennonites and the Church of the
Brethren, in the 1600s and 1700s. Once in America, other groups,
including some Baptists, adopted the practice, viewing the ritual as
an act of humility.10

“Footwashing,” in
Mennonite Encyclopedia,
347;
Grow, “‘Clean from the Blood
of This Generation,’”
132.

also may have instituted something similar in
meetings held in the vicinity of
Kirtland

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

Reuben
Harmon, a longtime resident of
Kirtland, stated in 1884 that he
had witnessed “the washing of feet” when “Mr. [Sidney] Rigdon was preaching in Mentor.”
It is unclear from the statement whether the ceremony occurred
in Rigdon’s Mentor church, or whether it happened in a reformed
Baptist congregation on Isaac Morley’s farm in
Kirtland.
(Kelley and Braden,
Public Discussion of the Issues,
393.)

Kelley, E. L., and Clark Braden. Public Discussion of the Issues between
the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and the Church of
Christ (Disciples), Held in Kirtland, Ohio. . . . St. Louis: Clark Braden,
1884.

In 1832, as part of his Bible revision, JS revised
the John 13 account of Jesus washing the apostles’ feet to state
that the ceremony “was the costom of the Jews under their law:
wherefore, Jesus done this that the law might be fulfilled.”12

New Testament
Revision 2, part 2, p. 117 [Joseph Smith Translation, John
13:10];
see also Faulring et
al., Joseph Smith’s New Translation of the
Bible, 69.

7 Sept. 1804–21 July 1887. Born at Ovid, Seneca Co., New York. Son of John Coltrin and Sarah Graham. Member of Methodist church. Married first Julia Ann Jennings, Oct. 1828. Baptized into LDS church by Solomon Hancock, 9 Jan. 1831, at Strongsville, Cuyahoga...

, another conference participant, the washing of
the feet was the defining ceremony in the establishment of the
School of the Prophets. “The school was organized,” he recorded in
his journal, “by assembling together and the washing of the deciples
feet.”14

acted
as clerk of the conference and recorded minutes of the meeting. He
and Sidney Rigdon

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...